Monday, November 13, 2006

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat

How many of you remember that slogan? Or am I showing my age? For many years that was the slogan of ABC's Wide World of Sports. I loved sports then, still do. Sometimes, I'm the odd woman out, the only woman in a room full of men watching a football game. Last March I blogged about March Madness and men's college basketball. Now it's football season, and I'm cheering for my favorite teams.

A few years ago I convinced my husband that we should get season tickets for the Jacksonville Jaguars games. Watching football in Florida is a lot different than watching it where I grew up. Here we sit in the stands and sweat instead of being bundled up in coats, gloves and stocking caps. However this time of year is quite pleasant in the stands. I think in addition to the game, I love the atmosphere and pageantry of being in the stadium with all the other fans. The crowd noise can be deafening. A lopsided game, if we are winning, can even be exciting.

I love to cheer for underdogs and see them win. When underdogs win, I think it is a testimony to triumphing over adversity. This year one of my favorite underdogs, at least in football, is having a fantastic season. My older daughter graduated from Wake Forest. More often than not Wake and Duke are the whipping boys of the ACC football conference. But this year Wake Forest has 9 wins and only one loss--the best football record in school history. This little university, third smallest in division one college sports, has gone into many of their games as an underdog. They lost their starting quarterback early in the season, but a second string red-shirt freshman took over the spot and has triumphed.

Sports can be just a snapshot of life. People strive everyday to win at their jobs--the sale made or products and services delivered on time. We writers often strive against the odds to get published. Just as athletes show up to the game every week whether their team is a contender of not, writers need to keep writing. Just as athletes train day in and day out even though their team may not be winning, writers need to train and keep learning their craft.

We here at the Wet Noodle Posse are a team. We cheer each other on. We share joys and sorrows. Victories and losses. We cheers for more books sold for our published members and for first sales for our unpublished members. Let's hear it for the WNP. Go team go!!

3 Comments:

Maybe that is why I cheer whenever an unpubbed (especially a Noodler) sells. We are all underdogs here! The odds of selling are always way against us and we just keep trying and trying.

I like sports when I can identify with the team, when it is "my" team, or when, like in the Olympics, I can identify with the athlete. But since my husband is so not sports minded, so we just do not watch any sports at all. (except the Olympics, which I insist upon!)

I try to watch enough sports to be able to carry on a conversation with someone. When I went through an American Sign Language interpreting program, my last teacher told us that we had to know enough about any given subject to at least be able to sign around it if it came up in conversation. She then went on to say, "They say that a little knowledge is dangerous. Let's get dangerous." I've never forgotten that.

Last weekend, when Diane invited me to take a look at some of the blogs, I decided to take her up on it. I had no idea what would happen, but for the first time, I have been writing consistently, every day, once my work is done. It's exciting to see the stories I've carried around in my head finally spilling onto a page. My thanks for the inspiration.

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